Upcycling/Repurposing Clothes

Do you have any clothes that fit you, but yet you don't wear them? For one reason or another, they get pushed to the back of the closet/drawer and only get worn if everything else is dirty. But yet, you hang onto them because you know that some day you WILL wear them!

About a year ago I got 2 shirts on the clearance rack at JCPenny. I think they cost $3.95 a piece. I wasn't in love with the style, but I really liked the fabric (that stretchy jersey knit that's super soft and silky) and I couldn't beat the price. I figured the style would grow on me, but it never did. They were too long and didn't hit me at the right spots to be flattering so they sat in my closet and never got worn. A while back I put them in my sewing pile and thought "some day I'll shorten those and then maybe I'll wear them." I wasn't committed to a style until this morning when I had the thought that the top of the unliked shirts is very similar to another newer shirt that I got recently and really like. That may sound pretty daunting, but really a lot of clothes are really easy to disassemble and reassemble if you pay attention to how it's done on something else and copy it.

Here's the unliked shirt...

And here's the liked shirt...

So, using the measurements of the liked shirt, I cut the unliked shirt shorter and included a band of fabric to make the new bottom the way I wanted it. I measured the band on the liked shirt. It is just under 3" wide, but doubled over. Add in a little for the seam (no need to be precise on something like this) and I cut it 6" wide (my rotary cutting ruler happens to be 6" wide, so I kept it in one spot to cut the band from the shirt and then the bottom off of the band)...

Then I measured the width of the band on the liked shirt (19" in this case) and used that measurement to cut and sew a band out of the fabric of the unliked shirt. Actually, I should have said sew and cut, rather than cut and sew. With stretchy fabrics, I think it's easier to sew when you have extra fabric to hold on to. So, I sewed the stitches where I wanted them, then cut off the extra on both ends...

Then I pressed the band in half (wrong sides together) and pinned it in several places. (Yes, my ironing board is a stained mess! It got caught in a rain storm while being transported in the back of a truck on the way home from my sister's wedding. A small price to pay for her dress to be beautifully pressed. Luckily, all of the stains are heat set and have never bled onto anything.)...

Next, I pinned the band to the shirt (right sides together). The shirt was a bit wider than the band, so I first pinned each side at the seam. Next was the center front and back, stretching the fabric to evenly spread out the extra fabric from the shirt. All in all, there were probably 16 pins around...

Next came the sewing. Stretchy fabrics can be a bit tricky to work with, but if you take your time and keep adjusting the layers so they are lined up right, then it works out fine. I did a straight stitch first...using the edge of my presser foot as a guide for width. Some people slowly stitch over their pins. I like to work up close the pin and then take it out. Then I get my fabric up to the next pin adjusted how I want it and sew right up to that pin...on and on around the hem. If I had a serger, then I'd have used that on the seams. I don't, so I improvised. My machine has, what I call, a graduated zig-zag stitch. Each zig and zag is comprised of 3 stitches. I run this in between the edge of my stitching and the rough edge of the fabric. It lays nice and flat and doesn't bunch up the fabric like a plain old zig-zag might. If you look on the black area, you can sort of see what the stitch looks like...

I pressed the seam up and here's the finished product...

And here's the other shirt...

Impressed? Well I am! And I'm really excited to wear them after a year's wait! The first one will probably get worn tonight to my good friend Heather's 30th birthday celebration.

Do you have any clothes that can be upcycled or repurposed?